Tate Files Five Bills Monday — Similarities to Last Year

After a successful re-election last month, State Rep. Nate Tate, R-St. Clair, is entering his sophomore term at a full sprint.

On Monday, the first day to prefile bills for the 2019 legislative session, Tate has submitted five bills begin the long process to possibly become laws for the state of Missouri.

Tate told The Missourian he planned to resubmit a few bills from last year that didn’t make it to the finish line and he has done just that.

One of the bills he hopes to get through the Legislature (HB 76) this year would prohibit the sale of products to mask the detection of drugs in a person’s system at drug tests.

Tate filed similar legislation last year after a report in The Missourian that synthetic urine and special hair and body shampoos could be purchased at dozens of locations in Franklin County.

Currently, Missouri does not have any laws restricting the sales of synthetic urine and it does have uses other than cheating on drug tests.

It is packaged as an adult fetish novelty and also can be used to calibrate some drug-testing equipment. Because of the other described uses, only about 15 states have passed laws restricting its sale.

House Bill 74 would prohibit the use of handheld electronic wireless communications devices while driving non-commercial and commercial motor vehicles by drivers under the age of 18.

Last year, a bill similar to this filed by Tate did not get much attention until the last day of the legislative session, May 18, when it was referred to the House Transportation Committee and time ran out before any further votes could be taken.

House Bill 75 authorizes a parent or guardian of a minor to request a security freeze on the minor’s credit report to protect minors from identity theft and other cyber crimes.

A similar form of this bill was filed last year, but died in the House Financial Institutions Committee in January of last year.

In addition to proposed laws, Tate has also sponsored two bills to designate specific days for specific causes.

House Bill 72 would designate the second Wednesday in May as “Celiac Awareness Day,” and House Bill 73 would designate the first Friday in May each year as “Law Enforcement Appreciation Day.”

In 2018, more than 2,000 bills were filed in the Missouri General Assembly and 145 were eventually passed to the governor’s desk. About half of the bills were signed by former Gov. Eric Greitens and the other half were signed into law by Gov. Mike Parson.

Others

As of Monday, the three incoming lawmakers representing Franklin County in the Missouri House had not yet filed any legislation.

Dottie Bailey, R-Eureka, Aaron Griesheimer, R-Washington, and John Simmons, R-Krakow, will be sworn in when the 2019 legislative session begins Jan. 9